🍂 The best Cornwall hotels this autumn 🍂
Cornwall.co.uk
Arriving in St Ives

Travel distances

Padstow to St Ives

Padstow to St Ives on the map

Start and finishThe route by roadSee the stops along the way on their own map ↓

Open this route in Google Maps ↗ for live traffic and turn-by-turn directions.

Distance

42 miles

by road

By car

About 1 hour 5 minutes

in normal traffic

By bike

About 4 hours

steady pace

By foot

About 14 hours

estimated at a 3mph walking pace

Before you set off

The A30 is the fast spine of this journey and flows freely for most of the year, but it is also the main holiday route into the far west, so Saturday changeover days in July and August can be slow between Bodmin and Camborne. St Ives has very little parking, and the descent into the town is best avoided in the middle of a summer day.

Which way to go

The fastest route

Leave Padstow on the A389 to Wadebridge, take the A39 south to the Indian Queens junction and join the A30 west past Bodmin, Redruth and Camborne to Hayle.1 Leave the A30 at the Loggans Moor roundabout and follow the A3074 through Lelant and Carbis Bay into St Ives. Around an hour and five minutes in normal traffic, most of it on dual carriageway.

The scenic route

For a slower, prettier finish, leave the A30 earlier at the Hayle turning and follow the lanes along the edge of the Towans, the great dune system behind the three-mile beach of St Ives Bay,2 before dropping into Lelant and St Ives. The branch railway runs the same way, and parking at Lelant Saltings to ride the last few miles in by train avoids the town's worst bottleneck altogether.

Caravans and motorhomes

The A39 and A30 are entirely suitable for caravans and motorhomes, with wide lanes and gentle gradients throughout.1 The final descent into St Ives is steep and the town's streets are not built for large vehicles, so use the Trenwith car park at the top of the town or the Lelant Saltings Park & Ride and come in by the branch line.

Stops along the way

Stops along the way — tap or hover a pin for a photo, the detour and a link to its guideStart and finishThe route by road

  1. Start

    Padstow

  2. Wadebridge

    4.7 miles off the main route, adds roughly 15 minutes

    The town at the lowest bridging point of the River Camel, with the Camel Trail running down to Padstow and up towards Bodmin Moor.3

  3. Redruth

    0.8 miles off the A30, adds roughly 8 minutes

    The heart of the Cornish mining district, once among the richest square miles in the world, ringed by the engine houses and chimneys of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape.4

  4. Hayle

    0.4 miles off the A30, adds roughly 5 minutes

    An estuary town at the mouth of the Hayle River, with a long industrial heritage and the three-mile beach at the Towans stretching north toward Godrevy.

  5. Carbis Bay Beach

    1 mile off the A3074, adds roughly 5 minutes

    A sheltered, south-facing white-sand beach on the final approach, one of the safest for bathing in West Cornwall and a short walk or branch-line hop from St Ives.

  6. Arrive

    St Ives

Practical information

Parking

St Ives is one of the hardest towns in Cornwall to park in. The Trenwith car park above the town is the largest and feeds a park-and-ride bus down to the harbour, and the Lelant Saltings Park & Ride lets you leave the car and take the scenic branch line in. The small harbour-side and Smeaton's Pier car parks fill by early morning in summer. In Padstow, use the Harbour car park above the town before setting off.

Train and bus

There is no direct train. The journey by rail runs through Truro: a First Kernow bus from Padstow to Bodmin Parkway, the main line west to St Erth, then the St Ives Bay branch line for the final four miles.5 The branch runs right along the shore of St Ives Bay with views across to Godrevy Lighthouse and is one of the finest short railway rides in Britain.6 Allow around two and a half hours with the connections.

The best time to travel

May, June and September give the best balance of weather and quiet roads. In high summer travel early or late in the day, and strongly consider the Park & Ride at Lelant rather than driving into the town itself. Padstow's own car parks fill early too, so an early start helps at both ends.

About the Padstow to St Ives journey

At forty-two miles, the run from Padstow to St Ives crosses West Cornwall from one celebrated coast to another, the broad Camel estuary on the north shore to the open Atlantic light of St Ives Bay in the far west. Both towns are packed in summer and both have long drawn artists and food lovers, but they could hardly feel more different in character.

The road climbs away from the Camel at Wadebridge, runs south to join the A30, then turns west through the old mining country of Redruth and Camborne, the engine houses and chimney stacks of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape standing in the fields on either side.4 This was once the most intensively industrialised corner of rural Britain, its copper and tin shipped out through harbours that now fill with yachts and holidaymakers. Beyond Hayle the land opens to the dunes and the long beach of the bay, and the quality of the light changes, which is the thing the painters came for.

St Ives gathered a colony of artists from the late nineteenth century onward, drawn by that light and by cheap lofts to work in, and the tradition runs unbroken to Tate St Ives on the hill above Porthmeor today. Arriving from the east, the first sight of the harbour and the headland from the hill above Carbis Bay is one of the great Cornish views.

What to do in St Ives

St Ives packs a great deal into a small space. Tate St Ives sits above Porthmeor Beach and shows modern and contemporary art in a building that frames the sea,7 and the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden nearby keeps the sculptor's studio and garden much as she left them.8 The harbour is the heart of the town, with its fishing boats, its narrow granite lanes of galleries and pasty shops, and four beaches within walking distance: Porthmeor for surf, Porthminster for sand and a famous beach café, Porthgwidden for shelter, and the harbour beach itself. The South West Coast Path out to Clodgy Point gives an easy walk and a wide view back over the town.

Read the St Ives guide

Going the other way: St Ives to Padstow

St Ives to Padstow reverses the A30 and A39 and takes much the same hour or so. If you came in by the branch line and Park & Ride, pick the car up at Lelant Saltings for the drive home. The climb out past Carbis Bay is gentler than it looks on the way in, and the A30 east runs well once clear of the town, with the Camel estuary at the far end.

Related journeys

St Ives to Padstow45 miles

St Ives to Padstow

1hr 5mins by car (About 1 hour 5 minutes)4hr by bike (About 4 hours)

St Ives to Padstow is 42 miles by road, about 1 hour 5 minutes by car. Find the fastest route, scenic alternatives, parking and public transport options.

Padstow to Penzance53 miles

Padstow to Penzance

1hr 20mins by car (About 1 hour 20 minutes)5hr 15mins by bike (About 5 hours 15 minutes)

Padstow to Penzance is 53 miles and about 1 hour 20 minutes by car via the A30. Compare the fastest and coastal routes, the main line train, parking and stops.

Padstow to Truro24 miles

Padstow to Truro

45 mins by car (About 45 minutes)2hr 15mins by bike (About 2 hours 15 minutes)

Padstow to Truro is 24 miles and about 45 minutes by car via the A39 and A30. Compare the fastest and scenic routes, buses, parking and stops along the way.

See every Cornwall journey →

Article Sources
  1. OpenStreetMap contributors (2026). Road network, road classifications and place names. Copyright and licence [online]. Available at: https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright OpenStreetMap[↩]
  2. National Trust (no date). Home page [online]. Available at: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk National Trust[↩]
  3. Sustrans (no date). Camel Trail (Padstow to Bodmin) [online]. Available at: https://www.sustrans.org.uk/find-a-route-on-the-national-cycle-network/camel-trail Sustrans[↩]
  4. Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site (no date). Home page [online]. Available at: https://www.cornishmining.org.uk Cornish Mining World Heritage[↩]
  5. First Kernow (no date). Bus services, routes and timetables in Cornwall [online]. Available at: https://www.firstbus.co.uk/cornwall First Kernow[↩]
  6. Great Western Railway (no date). Plan your journey: timetables and branch-line services in Cornwall [online]. Available at: https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey Great Western Railway[↩]
  7. Tate (no date). Tate St Ives [online]. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-st-ives Tate[↩]
  8. Tate (no date). Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden [online]. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-st-ives/barbara-hepworth-museum-and-sculpture-garden Tate[↩]
  9. Project OSRM (no date). Open Source Routing Machine: route shape and detour calculations [online]. Available at: https://project-osrm.org Project OSRM
  10. Ordnance Survey (no date). National Grid references used to position each place on the route map [online]. Available at: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk Ordnance Survey
  11. Google (no date). Google Maps: live traffic and turn-by-turn directions [online]. Available at: https://www.google.com/maps Google Maps